Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

Depletion of Inland Fish Stocks and Impact of Estuary Poaching: Inland Fisheries Ireland

10:35 am

Photo of Noel HarringtonNoel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not a scientist and I am not directly involved in the industry but I am a public representative who is surrounded by this maelstrom. I have documents from the Marine Institute and I have documents from the IFI which outline different positions. It is difficult for a lay person and a public representative to sail on an even keel through what I understand is required in a rural peripheral area in respect of sustainability. I am not a referee and this is difficult to manage. Is there any way, for example, that the Marine Institute and the IFI could bring the research together? In an inflamed scenario, anyone can cite scripture for his or her own purpose. A published fact sheet can be one person's bible and the Marine Institute's research could be someone else's, but they give me two entirely different views. That is difficult to deal with. With regard to the scientific advice, which feeds into the licensing of aquaculture projects and the protection of angling interests, who calls the shots? It seems we have two referees enunciating different positions and that is difficult to navigate.

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